Category Archives: Environment

China urges developed countries to take the lead in cutting out coal

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After dilution of Cop26 wording, China says developing nations cannot make green transition without support

As Cop26 drew to a close over the weekend, Chinese media highlighted Beijing’s contribution over the last fortnight in Glasgow. “The Chinese delegation took a constructive attitude, actively communicated and negotiated with all parties,” said CCTV’s main evening news bulletin on Sunday. “[It] provided China’s wisdom and China’s solution …”

But when China and India chose the last few hours of negotiations to push for the language on coal to be diluted from “phase out” to “phase down”, both countries came under nearly immediate fire from commentators. Cop president Alok Sharma later urged both countries to “explain themselves and what they did to the most climate-vulnerable countries in the world”.

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Canada: First Nation exposed to high levels of cancer-causing chemicals

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Aamjiwnaang First Nation in Ontario finally wins access to data charting pollution from local petrochemical facilities

A First Nations community in Canada has learned that levels of a cancer-causing chemical in its air are 44 times higher than is considered safe, after years of fighting for the data.

Aamjiwnaang First Nation in Ontario is surrounded on all sides by petrochemical facilities, and members have long suspected that the facilities in “Chemical Valley” have exposed them to potentially dangerous substances. .

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Rising humidity could be linked to increase in suicides, report finds

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Increasingly intense and frequent spells of humidity linked to global heating may exacerbate mental health conditions, with women and young people worst affected

More frequent spells of intense humidity caused by the climate crisis are more likely than heatwaves to be linked to increased rates of suicide, according to new research.

The study found that women and young people were particularly affected by levels of humidity, the intensity and frequency of which are increasing because of global heating.

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‘It’s like hunting aliens’: inside the town besieged by armadillos

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Thanks to climate change, armadillos, native to southern America, are making their way up north. And there’s no sign of them stopping their relentless march

In the pitch dark, Jason Bullard adroitly shoulders his rifle and levels it at the object. “That looks like one!” he mutters. It turns out to be a fuse box. Another candidate, again aimed at with the gun, reveals itself as a rock.

In this town besieged by armadillos, anything with a passing similarity to the armored nemesis is under suspicion.

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Stop talking, start acting, says Africa’s first extreme heat official

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Rising temperatures are already killing people in Sierra Leone’s Freetown, says Eugenia Kargbo, who is planning how best to protect the hundreds of thousands living in informal settlements

When she was growing up, Eugenia Kargbo could have a leisurely stroll, jog or cycle around the streets of Freetown. But that easy life no longer exists in Sierra Leone’s capital for her two children. The city is so swelteringly hot that children run the constant risk of sunburn or heat rashes if they are outdoors for very long.

“Over the past 10 years, there has been a dramatic change,” says Kargbo, 34, who has been appointed as Freetown’s chief heat officer – the first such post in Africa and only the third globally, after Athens and Miami.

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Australia news live blog: Barnaby Joyce dismisses Cop26 ‘talkfest’; snap lockdown for Katherine in NT; Qld eases Covid border rules

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Barnaby Joyce says Coalition has done a ‘great job’ on climate policy; Changes to South Australia quarantine and border restrictions; fully vaccinated travellers can apply for Qld border passes from 5pm; Victoria records 860 new local Covid cases and five deaths; NSW records 165 cases and one death. Follow live updates

Cop26 failed in a bid to phase out coal, news that had its president Alok Sharma close to tears. But not everyone’s disappointed – nationals senator Matt Canavan has declared it a great win for Australia’s mining industry.

He told the Nine Network:

Given the fact that the agreement did not say that coal needs to be phased down or taken out, it is a big green light for us to build more coalmines.

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Palm oil land grabs ‘trashing’ environment and displacing people

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Growing rush for land is destroying ecosystems and disrupting lives to satisfy global demand for goods, study warns

Businesses and governments must stop the growing rush of commodities-driven land grabbing, which is “trashing” the environment and displacing people, says new research.

Palm oil and cobalt were extreme risks for land grabs according to an analysis of 170 commodities by research firm Verisk Maplecroft published last week. It also warned that, alongside cobalt, other minerals used for “clean” technology, including silicon, zinc, copper, were high risk and undermined the sector’s label.

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‘Living from flood to flood’: the crisis of Gambia’s sinking city

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As well as floods, sewage and crocodiles, those living in Banjul’s slums face the effects of a climate crisis they did little to cause

Yedel Bah would move home if she could, but she can’t. With no income of her own, four children to feed and a husband who just about manages, her family lives from day to day, and from flood to flood, on the banks of a litter-strewn, stagnant canal.

Every rainy season, the neighbourhood of Tobacco Road in the Gambian capital, Banjul, braces for downpours of such intensity that the canal overflows, spilling its murky, pungent depths into the slum-like homes that run alongside it.

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Ratchets, phase-downs and a fragile agreement: how Cop26 played out

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Last-minute hitch on coal almost reduced Alok Sharma to tears as Glasgow climate pact made imperfect progress

As weary delegates trudged into the Scottish Event Campus on the banks of the Clyde on Saturday, few realised what a mountain they still had to climb. The Cop26 climate talks were long past their official deadline of 6pm on Friday, but there were strong hopes that the big issues had been settled. A deal was tantalisingly close.

The “package” on offer was imperfect – before countries even turned up in Glasgow they were meant to have submitted plans that would cut global carbon output by nearly half by 2030, to limit global heating to 1.5C above pre-industrial levels. Although most countries submitted plans, they were not strong enough and analysis found they would lead to a disastrous 2.4C of heating.

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Cop26 live: Boris Johnson gives press conference after climate deal is secured

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Agreement arrived at on Saturday night made progress in some important areas but poor countries say it is not nearly enough

Sharma says nations like China and India will have to justify themselves to developing nations.

“This deal does keep 1.5C in reach,” insists Sharma, who says he has received many messages of thanks from around the world for the deal.

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Three snow leopards die of Covid-19 at children’s zoo in Nebraska

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Lincoln Children’s Zoo says deaths of Ranney, Everest and Makalu are ‘truly heartbreaking’, as two tigers recover

Three snow leopards have died at the Lincoln Children’s Zoo in Nebraska of complications from Covid-19.

The zoo made the announcement in a Facebook post on Friday, describing the deaths of the three leopards – named Ranney, Everest, and Makalu – as “truly heartbreaking”.

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Winter, celebrity dolphin given prosthetic tail, died of twisted intestines

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Clearwater Marine Aquarium mourns dolphin whose recovery after losing tail was chronicled in the film Dolphin Tale

Florida’s most famous dolphin, Winter, beloved by fans around the world and star of the movie Dolphin Tale, died of twisted intestines, according to necropsy results released by an aquarium on Saturday.

The dolphin’s intestines were in an area impossible to reach through surgery.

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Cop26 ends in climate agreement despite India watering down coal resolution

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Glasgow Climate Pact adopted despite last-minute intervention by India to water down language on phasing out dirtiest fossil fuel

Countries have agreed a deal on the climate crisis that its backers say will keep within reach the goal of limiting global heating to 1.5C, the key threshold of safety set out in the 2015 Paris agreement.

Alok Sharma, the UK cabinet minister and Cop president, said the deal was “imperfect” but showed “consensus and support”. He said: “I hope we can leave this conference united having delivered something significant for people and planet together as one.”

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Delhi schools to close for a week due to smog

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Levels of PM 2.5 particulates hit 20 times safe levels as agricultural fires add to city’s air pollution crisis

Authorities in Delhi have announced that schools are to close for a week as the Indian capital’s pollution control body warned of a looming health emergency due to smog.

Delhi is ranked one of the world’s most-polluted cities, with a hazardous mix of factory and vehicle emissions and smoke from agricultural fires turning its air a toxic grey every winter.

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Australia live news update: Victoria records four Covid deaths; anti-pandemic law protesters seen carrying prop gallows; Cop26 in extra time

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Thousands march in Melbourne CBD as Victoria reports 1,221 new Covid-19 cases, NSW 250 and the ACT 11. Follow live

The Victorian numbers have also been published. The state recorded 1,221 new Covid-19 cases.

Sadly four people infected with the virus have died.

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We’re going to need a bigger planet: the problem with fixing the climate with trees

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Planting trees to offset carbon emissions sounds great, but where are we going to put them all?

As the United Nations Cop26 climate conference in Glasgow winds down, many world leaders and corporate boards are embracing an increasingly popular idea to solve climate change: trees.

The United Arab Emirates – one of the biggest oil producers in the world – promised to plant 100m mangroves by 2030. India said it aims to plant enough trees to cover a third of its land area with forests. Earlier this month the Amazon founder, Jeff Bezos, announced a $1bn fund towards planting trees, “revitalizing” grasslands in Africa and restoring landscapes across the US. And at the start of the conference, more than 100 countries pledged to halt and reverse deforestation by 2030. “These great teeming ecosystems – these cathedrals of nature – are the lungs of our planet,” Boris Johnson said, exalting the effort.

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Pressure mounts on countries to strike Cop26 deal as talks pass deadline

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Deadlock stretched climate summit past its scheduled end with hopes leaders will reach agreement by Saturday

Cop26 climate talks were closing in on a global deal aimed at limiting devastating global warming, with UK organisers hoping for a final agreement to the marathon negotiations on Saturday.

Delegates from nearly 200 nations are tasked with keeping alive the 2015 Paris goal of limiting temperature rises to 1.5C, as warming-driven disasters hit home around the world.

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The elephant in the room: a Thai village’s unwelcome guests – photo essay

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Humans have encroached on the animals’ habitat – now villagers face daily raids as the elephants break into their homes in search of food

It was around midnight when Kittichai Boodchan heard two loud crashes coming from in front of his home. He knew immediately what was happening. An elephant was outside, and it wanted the family’s stash of bananas.

Boonchuay, a local bull from the nearby Kaeng Krachan national park notorious for his habit of raiding the village in search of snacks, had come to call. Kittichai had earlier bought 200kg of bananas to sell and, although stored inside, the sweet scent had undoubtedly piqued Boonchuay’s interest.

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